Buying precious metals?

sambessey

Hi

If one wanted to invest a few grand in precious metals what would be the best way to do it? Do you trust places like https://www.goldmoney.com to not lose your investment if the economy starts going mammeries up?

Thanks

Chrismaths

If you want to buy gold, the simplest and easiest way is to buy the gold etf - ticker is GBS.L

More info on it at http://www.lyxorgbs.com/

The other easy way to gain exposure to the price that sort of thing is spread betting, but that requires a modicum of expertise.

Quarantz

Beware that prices of gold, platinum etc are very high at the moment. They rise against an overbought market. They could still rise, even up to over 800 $, but they can as easily drop enormously, especially when the situation about Iran would get better. I'm a pro trader and, like any (pro) trader, know the effects of sudden "moodchanges" in the market. If you can loose the money and want to go on with it, I hope you gain huge amounts quickly. If you would like better alternatives......

cheerfulcat

Hi, sambessy,

sambessey wrote:

Do you trust places like www.goldmoney.com to not lose your investment if the economy starts going mammeries up?

No, I don't. I don't like any of those outfits because there is absolutely no way of proving that they hold the bullion they say they do. TBH I would not see gold/silver as an investment in any case, more as portfolio insurance, and as insurance I would want to hold the physical, not paper.

There are a couple of gold funds and ETFs and a few general commodities funds,any of which I think would be a better way to get exposure to precious metals.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

amosworks

So can one actually buy gold, platinum or palladium etc and actually go pick it up then come home and bury it in your back garden?
I assume that's what's meant by "holding the physical, and not the paper"?

sambessey

Thanks for the replies...

I would disagree on not seeing gold as an investment. Perhaps I am being naive here, but Its value fluctuates in the same way stocks etc do, and surely money can be made effectively by purchasing and selling bullion at the right time just as easily as shares in Microsoft?

Just to clarify my position, I am only looking at the possibilities at the moment. The reason I am asking about gold is that I seriously considered pulling some money out of a tracker ISA in November and putting it in gold as I thought the market might go up, and it did. I didn't do it because I didn't feel comfortable handing it over to any of these online places like goldmoney, and due to stuff going on at work I never got a chance to look in to other ways of doing it.

Quarantz, whilst I am not a trader and I know my opinion may be considered misguided/ naive, I have been looking at gold for a while now, and I think in years to come when personal debt/ tax cuts (which lead to increased inflation as more disposible income is freed up for Joe Public) being countered by interest rate hikes (i.e. in the US which in turn means many can no longer afford their debts) finally take their toll on the world's economies (in the form of recession), gold could become a very expensive commodity,as we all know gold tends to rise when the world economy is performing poorly.

Just my opinion though. If it's terribly misguided, please let me know.

Quarantz

You are right when you say that gold is considered a `safe harbor`. The problem at this moment is that the price paid for gold is rising because of what I would like to call adventurers. More and more old gold (melted rings coins etc.' is used. That´s a normal process when prices rise, but than prices would slowly start to drop again. It doesn´t. And even stranger:This year there will probably be produced more than there is market for it!!! That should get the price down, but again..... Just be carefull. That´s all

gloryhunter77

https://www.goldmoney.com is run by James Turk who is very well respected in the 'Gold Bug' community and someone I would trust. The gold is held in a secure vault and your account is 'allocated' i.e. you own a (piece of a) specific bar. They also now have silver in their vaults which can be purchased in the same way as gold.

The only other similar scheme I trust is http://www.bullionvault.com/ who store gold in their vaults.

Apart from the ETFs (GBS in London; IAU, GLD and soon SLV in the US) you can also purchase shares in the Central Fund of Canada (CEF) who trade on the AMEX (US) and Toronto markets. CEF hold gold and silver in bullion form in their vault.

The above are all convenient stores but ideally you would want to keep some physical bullion on your person - especially in an economic doomsday type scenario.

On a side note, I think the bull market in the commodities and precious metals markets has just started and has a long, long way to go yet. In my opinion silver has the most explosive upside potential of the lot.

amosworks

How does one actually go about buying gold to put in their home safe?

anticlaus105

Hmmm.... lots of interest in gold recently. Wonder where the good money is going now?

EdInvestor

Then of course you can always buy shares in a few of the gigantic multinational mining companies listed on the FTSE - Anglo American, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton spring to mind.

This is probably a less risky way of going about it, as the companies are huge, diversified into numerous different metals (not just gold) and different countries ( so you're not exposed to the latest coup or flaky prospecting scam.)

There are also a couple of long standing commodities funds like Merrill Lynch Gold and General and JPM Natural Resources which will diversify your investment even further.